When focus is in the text entry field in an iChat chat window, holding option and using your up and down arrow keys cycles through the previous messages you've sent. This is very similar to how Terminal lets you cycle through previous command just using the up and down arrow keys.

[kirkmc adds: I actually spotted this a while ago. I'm not sure why it's there; and I don't really see any use for it, other than, perhaps, to find a text you sent to someone without scrolling in the window, and then copy it to send to someone else. This works in Lion; can anyone confirm that whether works in earlier versions of OS X or not?]

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Option-up arrow and Option-down arrow cycle through sent messages in iChat
Authored by: macavenger on May 02, '12 08:06:34AM

By any chance does this allow you to edit past posts? I don't use iChat, but I know Skype has a feature where you can hit the up arrow to get a previous post, and then edit it. Perhaps this is iChat's version of the same?